Creating a Family-Friendly
Workplace is a Win-Win

Every year on May 15th, the UN Day of Families highlights the crucial role families play in promoting overall health and happiness. But it’s not only individuals and communities that should prioritize the welfare of families, but also businesses that should recognize the value of implementing family-friendly policies in the workplace.

Businesses are increasingly recognizing the advantages of creating a family-friendly workplace through policies such as flexible work arrangements, parental leave, and on-site childcare. In fact, our Children’s Rights and Business Benchmark carefully considers how a company addresses family-friendly policies when evaluating a company’s overall children’s rights impact.

Implementing family-friendly policies can have multiple benefits, including promoting a better work-life balance for employees, leading to increased productivity and engagement. Such policies also promote gender equality by supporting women in maintaining their careers after having children, potentially increasing the number of women in leadership positions and closing the gender pay gap.

Family-friendly policies can positively impact children by reducing stress on parents, allowing for more quality time spent with children, and leading to stronger parent-child relationships. Additionally, when parents are able to participate in their children’s education, academic performance can improve.

There are also economic advantages for businesses that implement family-friendly policies, such as reducing employee turnover, increasing retention rates, and attracting top talent. These benefits can save businesses money on recruitment and training costs, as well as improving overall productivity.

Samsung – taking a family-first approach

One company that takes a family-first approach is Samsung. Based on the firm belief that a company is only as good as its employees, and with an ambition to continue to be an attractive employer, the company has prioritized implementing a range of family-friendly policies promoting employee wellbeing and work-life balance. Their policies were put to the test during COVID.

As Thomas Holmber, Samsung Nordic’s HR Head said,

“Supporting working parents with strong family-friendly policies is critical to ensure we minimize the disruption from the pandemic to our employees’ families and to their children. At the same time, these policies, and our commitment to them can help mitigate any arising gender equality issues exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, as we continue to strive to go beyond our legal obligations to provide benefits to fulfill our vision of supporting a culture that also enables women to realize their full potential as leaders and role models for future generations.”

(To read more Samsung’s initiatives, read our case study, Samsung: Supporting working parents and caregivers through strong family-friendly policies.)

Family-friendly policies can bring numerous social and economic advantages to businesses. By taking steps to assess their current policies, prioritize family-friendly policies, and communicate their commitment to employees, companies can advance towards creating more family-friendly workplaces and reap the benefits that come with them.